poodlemum

Oh, I Love GSP's - only thing is, I'm allergic to dog hair so every time I cuddled my boy I paid for it with a runny nose & itchy face. My boy was a nearly solid live - just a small white blaze on his chest and white tips on his paws - he was "Coolhand Bronze Wings" and we called him Wings. He had the most lovable, laid back nature and everyone loved him - especially cats!

I have found Aloe Vera Spray useful - if you can't find that Aloe Vera Gel or Lavender Oil could help

Get hold of a copy of "Give your dog a bone" by Ian Billinghurst - he explains the value of feeding raw foods - it's just common sense really - would a wild dog make a fire & cook his food?

As a former GSP owner I can also advise that, whatever you feed your GSP will be: A. Greatly enjoyed B. NOT ENOUGH!! I had a friend who's GSP got into the laundry and ate most of a 20kg bag of dry food - and still wanted dinner! Got any pics of your baby?

Yes, Niki truly was a very special boy. During the last 2 months of his life I was not working and spent almost every minute of every day with him - I'm so glad we had that time together. Everyone who knew him loved him.

Royal Canin is another good dry food - they make a "junior" which would suit your dog's age. Are you giving him anything else apart from dry food?

The thing to avoid is attributing too many human characteristics to your dog - dogs don't ususally get "bored" with food. If they like something, they will happily eat it every day. A case in point is Sophie. She is on the Hill's Z/D Low Allergy Diet and still gets excited and dances around when I feed her! If you are feeding a good balanced diet & your dog is happy with it there is no need to add anything else. Other wise we'll end up like those looney Yanks, who pratically give there dogs a menu to approve every day!

Seriously, if you do consider moving to Victoria (and it's a beautiful place to live!) Contact me - we are desperately seeking an experienced groomer for our shop.

Don't suppose you want to move to Victoria? There seems to be a serious shortage of good groomers here!

Silly me, I thought BARF stood for Bones And Raw Food, for some reason! That's primarily what I feed my guys , and they seem to do ok on it! Where can I get some information about the BARF diet, anyone got any links?

I'm afraid many vets are in the business to help themselves, not you, and they make a HUGE markup on the dry food they sell and promote. If my vet spoke to me in that condescending fashion I would be looking around for another vet. I have not really looked into the BARF diet, but I have always fed my dogs and puppies on mainly raw foods. One of the things I like most about my vet is that he is willing to accept some alternative treatment, such as naturopathy and, last time I brought in a litter of pups for their vet check told me "I'm sure there's not much I can tell YOU about raising puppies".

barly - why are you thinking of switching - is it price? I am feeding my Standard Poodles Royal Canin (as part of their diet) and they love it. I think it is a good dry food, as dry foods go, but I wouldn't feed my dogs completely on dry food. Perhaps you could look at giving your dogs more variety, fresh chicken or Eco-Pet (my dogs love Eco-Pet and I think it's a good food)

You must follow your own instincts, but it concerns me that what was a routine op has gone so pear-shaped. As I said before, I worry about the cleanliness of his clinic, given the number of infections poor Lou had to endure. Al I can say is, had this happened with one of my dogs I'd be looking for another vet. I also think it's not good enough that you had no way of contacting him out of hours - when one of my dogs was sick, my vet gave me his home number and said I could ring him any time if there was any change in my dog's condition.

This is my beautiful boy "Myrana Naughty Nikita". Niki was born in my house on the 22nd May, 1995 and very quickly showed his special qualities. I had not intention of keeping a pup from the litter, but knew by the time he was 4 weeks old that I could not possibly part with him. Niki became my constant companion - I took him everywhere I possibly could and he was a great consolation when my marriage broke up. Niki passed away very suddenly on the 26th October 2006, after an opration to remove a tumour from his stomach. RIP Niki, I was so lucky to have you for 11 years

I have a dog grooming salon & my partner, who does the actual grooming, uses a massage technique to calm nervous dogs - she has a lot of success with dogs that other groomers have said are "impossible". She says, once you relax them and gain their trust they are a lot easier to clip - less stress all round.

Hi - we are looking for a good experienced groomer to work in our salon - where is the most effective place to advertise? I have tried Seek & The Age, to no avail. We are really hoping to get someone before the Christmas rush (if any groomers are reading this & looking for a position-please contact me)

Cazzaritch, can I make a suggestion for you to consider? Look around for another vet to have on hand as a second vet (or maybe as a first vet and use your current one as a second vet?) Cazz - I second this most heartily - I have been reading this thread today and am absolutely horrified - it brought back memories of our 1st litter of Standard Poodles - 5 of the tails got infected when they were docked & those 5 puppies later died of renal dysplasia (kidneys did not form properly) many years later I read that this can be caused by an infection early in life. My Vet told me the infection was normal and never took any responsibility for the whole fiasco - needless to say. we changed vets after that. Your boy has had a routine operation which should have gone smoothly - he should be bouncing around again by now, the many recurring infections make me wonder about the sterility of conditions in your vet's surgery.

I have been breeding Standard Poodles for 20 years - as soon as my puppies have teeth, they get raw chicken wings to chew - dogs are meant to eat bones - most Americans have totally lost the plot as far as feeding dogs is concerned and I wouldn't pay any attention to them.